Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is the spiritual successor to 2010's "War for Cybertron", and depicts the climax of the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, culminating in the destruction of the Transformer homeworld of Cybertron.

Overview

A much darker game than its predecessor Transformers: War for Cybertron, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron follows after the first major conflict between the Autobots and Decepticons as the war between the two factions that was started in the previous game reaches its peak. Optimus Prime now leading his faction must battle Megatron's growing forces and influence over all Cybertronians in a bid for control over their dying world. Cybertron is in ruin and the planet's core is filled with Dark Energon, forcing it to shut down and go in to a death-like stasis.

After High Moon initially stated that they are not confident in their ability to deliver a quality port of the game to PC, on June 1st a PC version was announced to launch simultaneously with the console version after all. The PC port is handled by Mercenary Games, a relatively unknown studio.

Gameplay

Like the previous game combat and traversal centers around third person arcadey shooting and vehicular driving and combat that can be switched between on the fly. Like War the majority of Fall's gameplay is third person. There is no dedicated cover mechanic, however the player can press a button to move the camera perspective (and the playable character's shooting arm) left or right, so as to fire more safely behind obstacles. Each character can carry up to two weapons at a time.

In War for Cybertron characters could activate one of two chosen abilities at any given time, in Fall this has been replaced with a single ability activation in order to streamline the gameplay. There is also only one single campaign where the player switches between playing as either Autobots or Decepticons as opposed to War for Cybertrons dual-campaign covering separate story paths of the two factions.

Like War for Cybertron the player takes on the role of a specific character in each chapter of the story but unlike the first game this time around High Moon developed numerous gameplay systems for each character to make them play and feel different to the others. While Grimlock is a slow lumbering character with a powerful stomp attack and fire breath in dinosaur mode and a giant sword and shield in robot mode Jazz is a speedy nimble character with a grapple mechanic while Cliffjumper has the ability to turn invisible with stealth.

Story

Fall of Cybertron is set during the peak of the Autobot and Decepticon civil war that was started in War for Cybertron. Cybertron; the living metal world of the Transformers (also known as Primus in its robot form) is dying and in desperate need of new stores of energon to ever be revived. Shockwave being a "caretaker" who devotes himself to their world is determined to revive Cybertron via any means necessary and comes across the ancient technology of Space-Bridges that allows him to traverse space and time through wormholes. Given that the games take place millions of years prior to modern day he comes across Earth in its prehistoric state. While searching for sources of energy to convert in to energon he also begins experimenting on various Cybertronians he has captured, converting some in to the Insecticons (who make up a large portion of the games enemies) and others in to the Dinobots.

Optimus and his fellow Autobots are struggling to find a way to survive as well as acquire a means of leaving the planet as Megatron has doomed it to be uninhabitable. They come across the last fully functioning transport shuttle, called the Ark but it is without fuel. Those who are familiar with the G1 storyline know that this is the very same ship that ultimately crashes on prehistoric earth and is entombed in a volcano for millions of years until it is uncovered in the 1980s and thus begins the more well-known portion of the TF mythos.

"Space T-Rex" and the Dinobots

Slag - one of the dinobots

By far one of the coolest characters in the history of Transformers is Grimlock, known to fans and those casually interested in TF's alike as the big mechanical dinosaur who speaks in third person, breathes fire and is generally considered both equal parts bad ass and just plain so stupid he's awesome. He features prominently in Fall of Cybertron along with his fellow Dinobots Swoop, Sludge and Slag. They are among the most unique characters in Fall of Cybertron as they all have mechanical dinosaur alt modes instead of vehicles.

While some may question why an alien robot who's never been to earth or seen a dinosaur (in this continuity of TF's anyway) makes any sense at all, in the words of Game Director Matt Tieger: "He's a s Space T-Rex and that's awesome!". He and the team at High Moon admitted to being huge fans of the dinobots in particular and even after initial conflict with Hasbro managed to get them in the game.

The origin story of The Dinobots in Fall of Cybertron is much different to that of the original cartoon. In the 80s show they were constructed by Wheeljack and their unusual dino modes were the result of him scanning the fossil remains of real dinosaurs. In FoC they are experiments created by the Decepticon Shockwave, who had been quietly scanning life-bearing planets to find the most fearsome lifeforms in the universe, and been particularly taken by the dinosaurs of Earth, who still live and roam at the distant past setting of the game. All 5 of the original G1 Dinobots are present in the game, they being Grimlock (the t-rex), Slag the triceratops, Swoop the pterodactyl, Sludge the brontosaurus and Snarl the stegosaurus.

The Combaticons and Bruticus

Like the Grimlock stages of the Autobot portion of Fall of Cybertron, Bruticus is playable in certain parts of the Decepticon side. He too is a towering over-powered giant that lays waste to everything in his path. He also serves as the first combiner to ever feature in a Transformers video game. Bruticus is made up by the five members of the Combaticons Onslaught, Brawl, Swindle, Blast Off, and Vortex. Many people jokingly asked if players would get to control just one of the limbs of a gestalt should one ever be in video game form but Matt Tieger confirmed in an interview with Metro.co.uk that Bruticus would be played as if he were a single character, though obviously much larger and more powerful than others.

Campaign character specific abilities

Each character within the campaign has very a specific ability unique to them alone.

Character

Robot Mode

Alternate Mode

Autobots

Optimus Prime

Artillery Strike, Command Metroplex

Nitro

Jazz

Grapple

Nitro

Bumblebee

None

Nitro

Cliffjumper

Cloaking

Nitro

Grimlock

Rage Dino Mode

Robot Mode

Jetfire

Shockwave

Barrel Roll

Decepticons

Megatron

Hover

Nitro

Soundwave

Eject Mini-Cons

Nitro

Starscream

Cloaking

Barrel Roll

Vortex

Shockwave Blast

Barrel Roll

Swindle

Grapple

Nitro

Bruticus

Pain Wave

None

Weapons and Upgrades

New to Fall's weapons is an upgrade system that can best be compared to that of the Ratchet and Clank titles. Every weapon can have multiple modifications unlocked for increasing things such as range, rate of fire, ammo capacity and so on. Unique secondary modes of fire and effects can also be obtained. Upgrades are accessed through Teletran computer stations scattered across Cybertron.

Weapons list

Weapon

Description

A4 Pulsar Cannon

A sticky bomb launcher that attaches remote bombs to whatever they hit that can be detonated at any time or left as trap mines as they explode upon enemy detection.

X-18 Scrapmaker

Returning from War for Cybertron is the heavy triple barrel chaingun that spews out death at a very high rate of fire and goes through ammo like a fat kid in a candy store.

Chaos Rift Combuster

A grenade launcher more or less, it was originally going to be Megatron's tank mode alt fire. Numerous explosives are fired at an arc and explode on impact like cluster bombs or can be detonated in midair to rain down like small meteors.

Dimensional Decimator

Extremely similar to other 'pull in and expel' weapons of other sci-fi games. It launches a small energy sphere that like a giant magnet sucks everything towards it before exploding and sending everything within the radius outwards again.

Energon Harvester

While low in raw offensive power the harvester is a shotgun that leeches life from enemies and gives it back to the user.

Gear Shredder

A ricocheting blade launcher good for getting at enemies behind walls that also functions as a powerful melee weapon when charged up.

Nucleon Charge Rifle

A very powerful sniping weapon that increases in damage dealt the loner the target is within the crosshair when zoomed in.

Riot Cannon

A gun that starts off as a standard single shot rifle but once fully upgraded can decimate an entire wave of enemies in a single shot with powerful explosive rounds.

Photon Burst Rifle

A standard burst shot rifle but with the added bonus of displaying enemy health on the HUD. Once fully upgraded it fires many more rounds automatically.

Thermo Rocket Cannon

The relatively simple rocket launcher from War for Cybertron returns, with the ability to lock onto enemies if they are in vehicle mode.

Multiplayer

Classes

The same four chassis classes from War for Cybertron's multiplayer return, albeit with mostly new names. The new names for the classes are; Titans (Soldier), Infiltrators (Scout), Destroyers (Leader), and Scientist, which retained the old name. All classes have various styles of play, positives and negatives. Note each class levels individually with a level cap of 25 per class.

Changes

With Fall of Cybertron being the spiritual successor to War for Cybertron and not War for Cybertron 2, several changes have been made to mulitplayer game play. To start killstreak rewards have been taken out with High Moon siting "balance reasons" for the removal. To make up for this some KS rewards are now placed on the map as pick-ups, such examples are Energon Recharger, Intercooler, and Ammo Beacon. Additionally vehicle abilities, like barrel roll and ram, have been removed, but High Moon is considering adding them back in based on community feedback. The player limit has been increases form WFC's 5v5 to FOC's 6v6.

Game Modes

Fall of Cybertron has launched with 4 game modes.

Team Death Match

Conquest

Capture The Flag

Headhunter

Customization

Customization has much more depth and meaning in Fall of Cybertron than War for Cybertron with each character having six customizable regions being the torso, legs, wheels, upper arms, lower arms and head. The only parts chosen for robot mode that effect the appearance of vehicle mode are the torso, wheels, wings, and tank barrel along with the chosen color scheme. The coolest part of all this is that whatever choices players make are reflected in both modes.

Parts List

What follows are the list of characters whose parts, outline by class, you can mix and match to customize your Transformer.

Infiltrator

Destroyer

Titan

Scientist

Bumblebee (Recon)

Optimus Prime (Striker)

Megatron (Gunner)

Jetfire (Guardian)

Breakdown (Saboteur)

Swindle (Harbinger)

Warpath (Obliterator)

Starscream (Arclight)

Sideswipe (Rouge)

Ratchet (Mercenary)

Brawl (Tanker)

Air Raid (Protector)

Deadend (Assassin)

Ironhide (Commando)

Scattershot (Wrecker)

Vortex (Vanguard)

Jazz (Ghost)

Soundwave (Warmonger)

Demolisher (Bruiser)

Silverbolt (Skymaster)

Dragstrip (Slayer)

Onslaught (Road Brawler)

Quake (Steel Crusher)

Shockwave (Defender)

Wheeljack (Scrapper) *DLC

Zeta Prime (Battle Seeker) *DLC

Perceptor (Annihilator) *DLC

Blast Off (Wingman) *DLC

Slug *DLC

Ultra Magnus (Convoy) *DLC

Grimlock *DLC

Swoop *DLC

Snarl *DLC

Hound *DLC

Escalation

Escalation The beloved co-op/Horde mode from War For Cybertron, where players play as iconic Tansformers, returns in Fall of Cybertron. However like most aspects of Fall, High Moon Studious have made some changes to the mode. The additions to this mode have moved it more towards the Call Of Duty style of Horde mode, with the most notable aspects being buyable traps and a mystery box in each new room that give you a random weapon or ability.

Another big new change is that now Escalation is class based. Each person will now play a specific role based on what ability is assigned to each player. The four abilities include a riot shield, deployable turret, a beacon that boost the teams damage, and a heal ray that can't heal the healer.

Four Escalation maps are in the game at launch

Ancients - Wheeljack, Cliffjumper, Jazz, Perceptor

Oblivion - Megatron, Soundwave, Starscream, Shockwave

DownFall - Onslaught, Quake, Swindle, Brawl

Ignition - Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Warpath

DLC

Fall of Cybertron will be supported with dlc that at some point will include Dinobot and Insectitcons in mulitplayer.

Massive Furry Pack - includes G1 Optimus Prime for use in both campaign and muiltiplayer. G2 Bruticus Skin for use in campaign. Hound, Hardshell, Sharpshot, and Kickback for use in multiplayer. Also 2 weapons for use in campaign G1 Megatron Gun and Shockwave's Arm Cannon. Release - 9/25/12 Price - TBA

Visual Style Tweaks and Refinements

Like War for Cybertron Fall's art style is a mix of various inspirations from past iterations of Transformers and other famous sci-fi content. Due to improved lighting, shaders and other technical tweaks that now come with Unreal Engine 3 characters and environments are modeled at much higher fidelity and feature a much more diverse range of colors and material shading for a much nicer looking game overall.